South Sudanese families return home

South Sudanese families arrive with their belongings at a train station in Khartoum on March 1 to be transported home to South Sudan.

Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah / Reuters

A family waits for water before being transported home to South Sudan, in Khartoum on March 1.

Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah / Reuters

A South Sudanese newborn waits inside a train in Khartoum on March 1.

Ashraf Shazly / AFP - Getty Images

A South Sudanese man carries his belongings before returning home aboard a train organised by the International Organization for Migration in Khartoum on March 1.

South Sudanese nationals arrive at train stations in Khartoum to return home to South Sudan with the help from the International Organization for Migration. Southerners have until April 8 to either return home or normalize their status with Khartoum authorities.

South Sudan was created last year after southern Sudanese voted to secede from Sudan in a referendum required by a 2005 peace agreement that ended the country's long-running civil war.

Up to 700,000 ethnic Southerners are estimated to still be in Sudan and the United Nations and the Sudanese government have been organizing transportation of South Sudanese nationals to return home.